Here's a little surprise about a seemingly innocent product, your everyday cup of tea: some of the world's biggest tea manufacturers engage in some pretty cruel animal testing. According to PETA, Lipton has been testing tea on animals so that it can make health claims about its products, despite that such tests are not sufficient to meet regulation standards for proving a product's health claims.
PETA explains some of the things done to animals including rabbits, mice, rats, and piglets (but be prepared for some horrifying stuff):
Rabbits were fed a high-fat, cholesterol-laden diet, leading to extreme hardening of the arteries. They were then fed tea to see if it could reduce the lesions that formed on the animals' arteries. After the experiment, the rabbits' heads were cut off.
Rats were forced to eat a high-sugar diet, and then tea was given to the animals to see if it could protect against sugar-induced brain damage. Other rats had their abdominal wall punctured and were fed radioactively labeled tea ingredients through a tube in their stomachs in order to examine the absorption of tea in the body. Then they were killed, frozen with liquid nitrogen, and crushed.
Piglets were exposed to E. coli toxin and then fed tea in order to see if the tea could prevent fluid loss and diarrhea. As part of the tests, experimenters cut the pigs' intestines apart while the animals were still alive. The piglets were then killed.
PETA is asking people to join them in calling on Lipton (and Lyons and PG tips tea, big in the UK) to stop the cruelty.
Fear not though, this doesn't mean you should stop drinking all tea: Honest Tea, Twinings, Stash Tea, and Luzianne Tea have apparently confirmed that they do not test on animals—plus there are plenty of self-described eco-friendly tea companies out there, so contact your favorite to find out their policy, and share it in the comments below.
